The main goal of cancer surgery is to excise tumors en bloc with adequate tumor free margins so that morbidity and reoccurrence is minimized. While surgery remains an effective therapy for solid tumors, about one-third of patients who undergo surgery develop local recurrences. As surgeons rely on surgical pathology to determine the extent of the excision needed to eradicate a tumor, complete accuracy and efficacy of surgery has yet to be achieved. Surgical pathology routinely uses frozen sectioning to prepare surgically removed tissue into approximately 10 μm thick slides, and follow-up with histological examination using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. This allows the determination of the presence of disease in the surgical margins.
Notably, gross examination can be an important procedure in a ‘frozen section room’ because it locates disease tissues to be histologically sectioned and analyzed. Because only a small fraction of the specimen will be histologically examined due to time and personnel constraints, a way to improve gross examination is the best defense against sampling errors. These errors negatively impact the ability of the pathologist to provide accurate diagnosis and ultimately affect the ability of the surgeon to achieve clear margin status.
In view of the foregoing, new systems, devices and methods are needed to improve gross examination and margin status. The present invention satisfies these and other needs.